Disabled activists have launched a bid to raise enough funds to send every Labour MP a copy of a book that exposes the decades of “bureaucratic violence” at the heart of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
They need to raise £3,500 to buy 412 discounted copies of The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, which will be published by Pluto Press later this month.
They have launched a crowdfunding bid to raise the money, and if they manage to do so, they plan to deliver all 412 copies to the House of Commons on 2 September, the day MPs return from their summer break.
The idea for the crowdfunder came from John McArdle, co-founder of the disabled people’s grassroots group Black Triangle, who has often worked closely with Disability News Service (DNS) over the last decade to expose the harms caused by DWP.
He is leading the fundraising project with fellow disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford, whose support helped find a publisher for The Department.
Clifford has been coordinating work by the coalition of UK disabled people’s organisations that monitors implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Labour’s former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said the book – written by DNS editor John Pring – provides “definitive proof of how government austerity hasn’t just harmed disabled people, it has killed them”.
Disabled journalist and author Frances Ryan has described The Department as a “must-read exposé of one of Britain’s biggest hidden scandals” and says that “every politician, civil servant and journalist in the country should have this on their bookshelf”.
And freelance financial journalist Paul Lewis, who presents Money Box on BBC Radio 4, says the “disturbing” book shows “how successive Conservative, Labour, and Coalition governments have not only failed to provide the money, help, resources, and understanding that disabled people need, they have gone to great lengths to hide the truth about what they have done”.
But Clifford and McArdle say they cannot be sure that everyone who needs to read the book will do so.
They believe Labour MPs need to understand the “enormous suffering” caused by the social security reforms of successive Conservative-led governments, and that the plans proposed by the Conservatives before they lost power last month would “unquestionably cause more deaths and social devastation” if the new government decides not to scrap them.
They point to the conclusions of the UN committee on the rights of disabled people, which found in November 2016 that the UK government was guilty of “grave and systematic violations” of UNCRPD, mostly due to DWP policies.
Earlier this year, more than seven years on from that finding, the committee concluded that not only had the government made no significant progress in addressing their concerns, but there had also been further regression of disabled people’s rights in key areas.
McArdle and Clifford said the new Labour government must now be held to account over putting right those breaches and designing a new social security system that respects the lives of disabled people and other benefit claimants and “does not treat us with contempt and hostility and does not kill us and then hide the evidence”.
McArdle said the aim of the project was to educate Labour MPs, so none of them can “plead ignorance”.
He said: “There are so many who just won’t know a thing about this. There’ll be some who are completely ignorant.
“Our job now is to influence enough MPs to change the direction of travel.”
He said: “It is the duty of every member of parliament, not only Labour, to face up to the facts, because the book is above all factual and free of any kind of ideology.
“People must now ask themselves, based on the facts, what sort of country they want Britain to be for themselves and their children.
“They’re in power now so they have the power to change everything, if they wish.
“They have to be informed and well-educated about where we’ve come from over the past 14 years, where we are now, and where we need to go.
“Let’s build a country that complies with its international human rights obligations, that is compassionate and one in which people don’t live in fear.”
Lee Starr-Elliott, a Deaf trade unionist and disability activist, said: “While I hope a Labour government will bring about change for disabled people, we activists cannot take the foot off putting pressure on the government, whoever is in power.
“We need change to the abusive attacks on all fronts against Deaf and disabled people, including changes to the DWP after 14 years of its systematic attacks and sanctions.
“We shouldn’t need to fundraise to send every Labour MP a book about how DWP has failed our community, but we have to do that to ensure they hear our stories.
“We need our voices to be heard.”
Neda Tehrani, who edited the book for Pluto Press, said: “Pluto Press is proud to be publishing The Department at a time when it is more important than ever to hold our government to account.
“This crowdfunder will encourage newly elected Labour MPs to reckon with the devastating history of welfare reforms in this country, and to learn from the people directly impacted by years of negligence and harm, in the hope that different decisions will be made today by those in power.”
Pring said: “I don’t blame Labour MPs for not being aware of the shocking history of this government department, but it is vital that as many of them as possible now know what happened over the last 35 years.
“They need to know how DWP has spent decades denying the harm of its policies and hiding the evidence of that harm.
“Successive waves of social security reforms eventually led to countless deaths of claimants in the post-2010 austerity years.
“All of this is evidenced in my book.”
He added: “The new Labour-led DWP is about to embark on a series of major reforms around employment and disability benefits, which will have a significant and life-altering impact on hundreds of thousands of disabled people.
“The actions and comments of Liz Kendall, Labour’s new work and pensions secretary, and her repeated failure to address concerns about deaths linked to universal credit and other safeguarding issues, suggest that she could be about to take some reckless and negligent steps that risk repeating the terrible harm of the Conservative years.
“It is absolutely vital that her MPs know DWP’s history, so they are equipped to challenge her plans if needed.”
For more information about The Department, visit TheDepartmentBook.com
Picture by House of Commons, used under a Creative Commons license
A note from the editor:
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